We’re pleased to announced that long-time Beat operative Mark Coale has joined us as…well, Helper Bee. Mark is the editor/publisher of Odessa Steps Magazine, a pop culture zine which has regrettably been on hiatus for a while. He also has a number of blogs which you can check out at the above link.

Mark has been with us for quite a while, starting back on our AOL proto-Blog, Heidi’s Habitat, helping us mod Super-Lime Jumping Station, our Delphi forum, working as a reporter for The Pulse, and now doing odd jobs here at Stately Beat Manor. If nothing else, Mark will be cleaning up some of our more egregious and credibility-sapping typos–with San Diego Madness upon us, things are only bound to get worse. He’ll also be contributing a few regular features and round-ups as time goes by. Please welcome Mark as Grand Vizier to the Mighty Beat Empire!

•••••

Meanwhile, Harry Potter is being spoiled EVERYWHERE. It’s like landmines on the internet. The book has been photographed and is up on BitTorrent already, although Scholastic is desperately trying to find out who uploaded the photos to Photobucket. We’re very very afraid. WE CAN’T KNOW, we just CAN’T! AVOID!

Oh yeah, quote of the day:

“I’d say it ends like this — Potter hits a home run. Is there baseball in it?” —Adam Sandler, speculating on the conclusion of the final Harry Potter novel[VH1]
[Via Vulture]